Parliament and government composition database (ParlGov):
An infrastructure for empirical information on parties, elections and governments in modern democracies.

Version 10/11 – 16 November 2010.
http://www.parlgov.org/

Holger Döring (European University Institute)
Philip Manow (University of Heidelberg)



CREDITS


ParlGov contributors

Please note that institutional affiliations refer to the respective institution researchers were located at the time of contributing to the project.
Project leaders

    * Holger Döring 2005-2010
    * Philip Manow 2004-2010

Institutional affiliation

    * University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS) 2010-2010
    * European University Institute (EUI) 2009-2010
    * University of Heidelberg 2009-2010
    * University of Konstanz 2007-2009
    * Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) 2004-2007

Major contributors

    * Jan Biesenbender (University of Konstanz) 2008-2010
    * Dominic Heinze (MPIfG and University of Bonn) 2006-2007
    * Jens Hoffmeister (underline webdesign Berlin) 2010
    * Mathias Steudtner (Mittweida) 2007-2008
    * Hendrik Zorn (MPIfG) 2004

Contributors

We would like to thank the following people for contributing support, ideas, and encouragement.

    * Micha Bächle (University of Konstanz) 2009
    * Florian Beyer (University of Konstanz) 2008-2009
    * Christian Breunig (MPIfG and University of Seattle) 2006-2008
    * Fabio Franchino (University of Milan) 2008-2010
    * Mark Franklin (European University Institute) 2009-2010
    * Simon Franzmann (University of Cologne) 2006-2010
    * Steffen Ganghof (MPIfG and University of Potsdam) 2005-2007
    * Frank Henze (Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus) 2005-2010
    * Johan Hellström (University of Umeå) 2009-2010
    * Bjørn Høyland (University of Oslo) 2009
    * Sebastian Hübers (MPIfG and University of Tübingen) 2006
    * Johannes Kleibl (University of Essex) 2010
    * Jürgen Lautwein (MPIfG) 2007
    * Conor Little (European University Institute) 2010
    * Mikko Mattila (University of Helsinki) 2009
    * Peter Mair (European University Institute) 2009-2010
    * Quinton Mayne (European University Institute) 2009-2010
    * Monika Mühlböck (IHS Vienna) 2009-2010
    * Sinziana Popa (MPIfG and Duke University) 2007
    * Phillip Rehm (WZB and Duke University) 2007
    * Jan Rose (Berlin) 2005-2010
    * Armin Schäfer (MPIfG) 2005-2007
    * Valentin Schröder (University of Potsdam) 2010
    * Julia Sievers (University of Bremen) 2006-2010
    * Paweł Szczerbak (Heidelberg University) 2010
    * Guido Thiemann (IHS Vienna and MPIfG) 2006-2009
    * Alexander Trechsel (European University Institute) 2009-2010
    * Luca Verzichelli (University of Siena) 2007-2010
    * Nina Wiesehomeier (University of Konstanz) 2008-2010

Open source software

    * Python and BeautifulSoup, Django, Febrl, Trac
    * R and RSQLite
    * SQLite and SQLite Manager

Icons and pictures

    * Famfamfam flag and silk icons
    * Wikimedia Commons



CHANGES

Version 10/11 ¶

Released 16 November 2010 -- milestone:1.1 -- Florence
Summary ¶

    * complete database refactoring -- recoding of table/variable names and all id variables -- see below
    * new web design -- Jens Hoffmeister (underline webdesign Berlin) 2010
    * new data: European Election Study (2009) party ids added; Belgium, United Kingdom, Portugal, Latvia updated from seats to votes level data; Swiss cabinets since 1945 added
    * recent elections and cabinets until October 2010 and data corrections -- see below

Data ¶
New information ¶

    * elections 2010 added: HUN, GBR, CZE, NLD, SVK, BEL, SWE, AUS, LVA
    * cabinets 2010 added: NLD Balkenende V, ROU Bejinariu, HUN Orban II, GBR Cameron, JPN Kan, FIN Kiviniemi, AUS Gillard, SVK Radicova, CZE Necas, SWE Reinfeldt, AUS Gillard II, LVA Dombrovskis III,

    * updated from seats to votes level data: BEL, GBR, PRT, LVA

    * European Election Study (2009) party ids added
    * CHE all cabinets since 1945 added
    * POL parliament_change -- specification of party composition changes in 2007 parliament

Corrections ¶

    * BEL cabinet -- recoded party ids for CVP and SP to CD&V/N-VA and SPA/Spirit for all cabinets after 2003 election
    * BEL cabinet -- removed orphaned observations from 'cab_party' (old_cabID 19600, 19731, 19732, 19760)
    * BEL cabinet -- renamed Eyskens 1981 into 'Eyskens M'
    * BGR cabinet -- Stanishev cabinet coding of BSP as KzB
    * BIH party -- added parties (old_partyID: 11, 15, 21, 22, 26, 30) to match all CMP parties
    * CAN cabinet -- Diefenbaker II and III added
    * CAN cabinet -- St-Laurent split into I, II, II
    * CAN cabinet -- King III dates corrected
    * CZE cabinet -- Tosovsky coded as 'caretaker'
    * CZE election -- recoding 'election_date' to last date of election and adding 'opening_date' to 'datajson'
    * CZE party -- recoded and removed HSD/SMS duplicate ('old_partyID' 52)
    * ESP election ep -- 2004 and 2009 EP election results updated with official sources
    * ESP party -- recoded I ('old_partyID' 71) into IU/PCE ('old_partyID' 57)
    * EST parties -- RKI (1992); RKI/ERSPI, ERSP, I (1995) and affected elections/cabinets -- revising
    * FIN cabinet -- Aura II corrected 'start_date' and 'end_date'
    * FIN cabinet -- Barre I, Barre II added observations for non-partisan prime ministers ('pm') to 'cabinet_party'
    * FIN cabinet -- Fagerholm II, added L (Liberals)
    * FIN cabinet -- Fagerholm III and Virolainen added Liberals
    * FIN cabinet -- Kekkonen II, added RKP
    * FIN cabinet -- Lipponen I, added VAS
    * FIN cabinet -- Lipponen II, split into II and III following resignation of VIHR
    * FIN cabinet -- Paasikivi, Fieandt, Kuuskoski, Lehto, Aura I, Aura II, Liinamaa added observations for non-partisan prime ministers ('pm') to 'cabinet_party'
    * FIN cabinet -- Sukselainen, Karjalainen, Sorsa II, Sorsa III, Holkeri, Aho recoded as several cabinets due to change in party composition
    * FRA cabinet -- Fillon I,II corrected cabinet name
    * FRA cabinet -- Barre II 'starting_date' recoded
    * GBR cabinet -- Eden government split into Eden I and Eden II
    * GBR election -- 1945 corrections
    * GER cabinet -- Adenauer II split into several cabinets and coding of party changes
    * GRC cabinet -- renamed Karamanlis cabinets to avoid duplicated cabinet names
    * HUN cabinet -- Bajnai corrected cabinet name
    * HUN cabinet -- Gyurcsan III removed SzDSz
    * ITA cabinet -- Prodi I and Amato II added observations for non-partisan prime ministers ('pm') to 'cabinet_party'
    * ITA cabinet -- Moro I government split into I, II, III and recoded later Moro governments into IV and V
    * ITA cabinet -- Spadolini and Craxi government split into I and II
    * ITA party -- PdL duplicate recoded and removed ('old_partyID' 151)
    * ITA party/alliance -- CCD/CDU unified; recoded old_partyID 140 into 53
    * JPN cabinet -- Hatoyama I added DSP and KS
    * JPN cabinet -- Koizumo II 'start_date' recoded to 2003-11-19; previous coding was linked to 2000 election results
    * JPN cabinet -- Ohira I corrected 'start_date'
    * LTU cabinet -- renamed Vagnorius cabinets by adding I and II
    * LTU party -- LSDP split into two parties and recoded pre 2001 election results of LSDP to new party ID
    * LVA cabinet -- 1998 legislative term correction of party composition for cabinets
    * LVA cabinet -- Dombrovskis 2009 added
    * LVA cabinet -- Skele I and Skele II added observations for non-partisan prime ministers ('pm') to 'cabinet_party'
    * LVA election -- revision of election results (esp. 2002) during update to vote level data
    * NLD cabinet -- coding of 'defector' parties
    * MLT cabinet -- renamed cabinets to avoid duplicated cabinet names
    * NLD cabinet -- Den Uyl government split into Den Uyl I and Den Uyl II (caretaker)
    * NZL cabinet -- Howard I split into two cabinets taking 1951 election into account
    * POL cabinet -- Kaczynski I, II, III, IV recoded into one cabinet -- following more specified cabinet coding rules
    * POL cabinet -- Marcinkiewicz II corrected 'startingDate' from 2005 to 2006
    * POL cabinet -- Pawlak I -- added party
    * POL cabinet -- Suchocka II coded as 'caretaker'
    * POL election -- LiD dissolution in April 2008 coded
    * POL election -- 1992 PO recoded into POC
    * POL party -- recoding of some party families
    * ROU cabinet -- Athanasiu, Bejinariu coded as 'caretaker'
    * SVN cabinet -- Jansa 'startingDate' recoded to 2004-12-03; previous coding was linked to 2000 election results
    * SVN cabinet -- Peterle parties recoded
    * SVN cabinet -- Drnovsek II removed ZS
    * SVN election -- 1990 election added
    * SVN election -- added two seats to each election one for Italian and the other for Hungarian national community seat
    * SVN party -- SLS/SKD recoded into SLS

    * corrected differences between coded and calculated (votes/votes_valid) vote shares -- except PRT (ticket:56)

Webpage ¶

    * new web design

    * further information about cabinet below list of parties in cabinet
    * list 'comment' in documentation of table variables
    * show 0 seats on election result pages
    * government type (minority, minimum winning, oversized) on cabinet pages and cabinet index ticket:36
    * legend for tables on index pages of elections and cabinets
    * Famfamfam silk icons for links to downloads
    * information about recalculated seat shares in cabinet page
    * smaller font size for election date on list of cabinets

Database ¶

    * complete database refactoring
          o renaming of tables and variables
          o unique primary keys in all tables (variable 'id')
                + old id variables are kept in core tables with prefix 'old_' (eg. 'old_partyID' in party table)
          o foreign key enforcement (in Django)
          o 'data_json' variable for additional information in some tables (experimental version)
          o coding of all 'id' variables in 'info_id' -- except variables with an own table (e.g. country, party, election)

Version 10/02 ¶

Released 25 February 2010 -- milestone:1.0 -- Turin
